


Ghost of Christmas Eve

by Withallmyluv



Category: Alex Rider - Anthony Horowitz
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-01-04
Updated: 2012-01-04
Packaged: 2017-10-28 22:00:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,835
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/312617
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Withallmyluv/pseuds/Withallmyluv
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Summary: Two years after SR Alex is heading home for Christmas Eve when he sees a ghost of his past, but is he a real ghost or a not-so-dead man.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Ghost of Christmas Eve

It was Christmas Eve and a young man stalked the streets of California like a ghost. He stuck to the shadows even though it was late at night. His tall and muscular frame walked gracefully along the footpath, his footsteps silent and his head covered by a beanie.

His breath puffed out in smokes and in his long winter coat, he looked like any other man on Christmas Eve. He seemed as if he was heading somewhere, his footsteps fast and eager, yet his pace was even and controlled. His hands were covered by woollen gloves, stylish and yet simple. Around his neck he wore a plain black scarf that looked like it had been handmade.

To the civilian world he was known as Alex Pleasure, a young man who had been adopted by the Pleasure family two years ago. To the underground world he was known as Alex Rider, extraordinary teenage spy and a weapon to be reckoned with.

Turning onto the street that the Pleasures lived on, he caught sight of a man that looked familiar. It could have been a trick of light or maybe the cold was messing with him, but he swore that he saw a scar on the man's neck. The man stood on the other side of the road and he could have easily seen wrong, yet his instincts screamed at him to run.

So in true Alex Rider style, he crossed the road casually as if that was what he had meant to do all along and headed in the man's direction. As if the man could sense him walking after him, his strides became larger and he picked up his pace. Alex followed as the man abruptly turned onto another road, picking up his own pace to make sure that he would not lose the man.

As he turned onto the new street his instincts flared, he turned to the side and before he could turn around fully, the tip of a gun rested on his back.

He watched his foggy puffs of breath in the cold air and tried to stay calm. The gun was pointed at his spine but if the man holding it was who he had thought he was then there would be no shooting until he said something to anger the man. He thought there is a fair chance that he would, after all not everyone appreciated his sense of humour.

"You know, if you're gonna point a gun at me you might as well tell me who you are and what you want."

"I believe the right question would be what do  _you_  want?"

The voice was calm, steady and accent-less. It was a voice that should not be memorable, yet Alex Rider could tell exactly who the man was from the moment the first word came out of his mouth.

His own voice was quite as he suddenly became breathless and he puffed out, "Yassen," his chest heaved once and he took a deep breath, "You know it's not nice to let someone think you died when you're actually alive."

"Alex, did you want something or do you just want to catch up?"

Yassen said this was a tinge of annoyance that Alex thought was faked, however he was not an expert on the Russian assassin and he could not be sure.

"I've got a lot of questions for you and some things I think you have the right to know."

He was completely calm and relaxed as he said this. He had not been a spy for four years without learning how to disguise his every move, breath and expression.

"Alex I do not think tonight is the best night for this talk."

Alex prayed that the Pleasures would understand what he was about to do, it was only his second Christmas with them and he did not want to mess it up yet he knew that if he let Yassen go he may never see the man again.

"Do you have dinner plans then? I'm sure you can fit me in somehow, I don't mind waiting."

He heard the assassin sigh softly before his unnerving voice said, "Alright Alex, where would you like to have this  _talk_?"

His mind raced as he tried to think of an appropriate place. A restaurant or bar would be too public, anyone could overhear. His apartment in town was not an option. He doubted the assassin would want to bring him to his (no doubt) temporary home. He made a decision that he knew he would regret if the assassin became angry over what he told him for no one would know that the assassin was attempting to kill him until it was too late.

"How about we rent a hotel for the night and talk there, that way we won't find out anything about where each other live."

He waited until the gun disappeared from his back and instead a hand rested casually on his hip, "Alright we can go to Height's Hotel for the night, however I will need to leave before three in the morning. I have business to do."

The Russian now stood at his side with his arm wrapped around his waist and his hand still on his left hip. It felt intimate and yet not uncomfortable with an assassin's arms around him. He wondered if it was just this assassin or if assassins in general just made everything feel natural. For some reason he doubted that assassin lived to make people feel comfortable.

As they walked towards the hotel, Alex thought about how Yassen had said 'I have business to do.' He wondered who was the assassin's target this time and for a second he wondered if it was himself. He dismissed the idea almost immediately, and even if Yassen's target was him he'd give the assassin a run for his money. Alex Rider was not an easy target.

::::

Renting a room had been a bit complicated, the receptionist had told them there had been no rooms with two beds left and they had simultaneously said that a single room with one bed would do. They were only going to talk and neither had actually wanted to sleep in the hotel but the receptionist had looked at them and blushed. From there on the geeky looking girl kept stuttering and looking at them from under her lashes, blushing every time the two of them made contact with each other.

The spy and assassin had somehow come to a mutual agreement and both teased the girl by touching each other and saying innuendos at every opportunity they had. By the time they headed towards their room, the girl was bright red and refused to look either of them in the eye.

Yassen opened the door with their key card and Alex all but ran past him and burst out laughing, flinging himself onto the bed. He laughed and giggled as he stared up at the ceiling and finally lifted his head when he realised he had no idea where Yassen had gone.

He spotted Yassen leaning against the wall next to the door, one had on his belt and one foot rested against the wall. His right eyebrow was lifted upwards and Alex suppressed a grin and asked wearily, "What?"

Yassen simply looked at him emotionlessly and said, "You find humour easily."

Alex eyebrows shot up and he replied, "Well, in our world if you don't find humour in things easily then how do we live? We need the humour Yassen," and underneath his breath he said, "I need the humour."

The assassin stared at him intently, enough to make him uncomfortable although he showed nothing on the outside and just stared right back at the assassin.

" _Our_  world? Alex I had thought you had quit, did you not?"

This time Alex looked away, he opened his mouth and then closed it. After a moment in thought he replied carefully, "I quit MI6, I didn't want them to use me anymore. But spending two years of your life spying… it's hard to forget all you've done. I tried, I truly did, to become a normal teenager but there was always something…  _there_  keeping me from being normal."

Alex darted a quick look at Yassen and when he received a nod, he continued, "At first I did small things, like help out the kids at my school who were bullied. I never did care for bullies. Then I went a bit bigger, stopping a drug deal around school. I slowly realised that I was a bit… different with my reactions to things than normal kids my age. In History class, we were studying World War I and II, when our teacher told us what weapons they'd used and created, I found that I knew about all of them. How to use them, how to make them, the history of each weapon and I realised I knew how to  _kill_  with them. That's when I first realised that perhaps normal life was not going to work for me."

He paused again and looked at the assassin, when their eye's met; Yassen pushed off the wall and walked to sit on a chair opposite Alex.

"I found that the problem wasn't what I couldn't do, but it was what I could. Yassen I know how to kill with my  _bare hands_. I can keep up a conversation with a politician and seem like I've been doing it my whole life. I can take up a job, any job, and be great at it. I can speak so many different languages and each one fluently that I could pass for a local of that country. I realised that I was too curious for my own good and that if I didn't do something, I'd go mad."

Alex walked up and grabbed a bottle of water from the counter. He rested his body against the counter in a casual pose. His voice was quieter as he said the next part and he kept his eyes down, not wanting to see Yassen's reaction.

"I found Joe Bryne, head of CIA, and got a part time job from him. I'd work for him when I wasn't attending school; sometimes it'll be weekend jobs, sometimes it'll take up my summer holidays."

He waited with his head down, almost feeling ashamed. He had been given an out on the underground world, yet he chose to jump back into the fire pit. He looked up at Yassen when the assassin finally spoke.

"What did you do for him?"

His voice was calm, emotionless and uncaring yet Alex could see a tint of worry in those ice blue eyes. He could see that Yassen cared about him, probably more than the assassin wanted to. He opened his mouth and spoke louder than before.

"For the weekend jobs, it was simple things, a drug duel that needed to be busted that was easy for a teenager like me to do, listening in on a conversation at a local restaurant or easy things like that. For my longer jobs it was a bit more complicated, most of the time it was out of the country since Joe believed that my summer holidays were my time for 'vacations'. He'd send me to somewhere like France and I'd have a new identity, I'd have to work from the bottom up in some organization and find out some things, if I have time, I bring them down."

He smiled a bit ruefully as he said, "Joe fully believed that my education was the most important part of my current life so even if I was halfway through a mission, he'd make me come back in time for school. None of my missions were like the ones MI6 gave me, where the world depended on my success. Joe is… easier to work with than Blunt and a lot more caring. I think it's because he has a soft spot for children."

He grinned, thinking of the first time he met Joe Bryne's daughter. The pretty blond girl was nine years old and believed Alex to be her Prince in Shining Armour. He'd babysat her a couple of times when she visited California with her father when he was on business, her mother had died when she was three, leaving her father to care for her himself.

Yassen's sceptical voice brought him back to the land of the living, "So Joe Bryne has agreed to only use you for simple missions?"

Alex nodded his head and replied warily, "Yes, but I know what you're going to say. I know that one day something will come up that won't be simple and easy, something that will determine the world's safety and I'm going to be the best suited one for the job. I know that he'll offer and if I refuse, he'll think of a way to make me and I know that one day one of these 'Alex is the only one who can do it' missions will kill me."

Yassen's eyebrow rose up again and he stared at Alex, scrutinizing him. His lips formed a flat line and he seemed extremely displeased by what he just heard.

"If you know this, then why have you not quit Alex?"

Alex looked at him and smiled softly, "I guess once you experience the spy world, you just can't get out of it, no matter what. My life is good and I am happy, death is a price I'm willing to pay."

Yassen sighed and he bowed his head down and covered his eyes with his hand. Alex was shocked, the move was so out of character for the assassin and he knew in that moment that the assassin trusted him like how he trusted the assassin.

They had both decided that they shall not kill each other tonight.

::::

The room was silent as Yassen walked towards Alex and grabbed a bottle of water himself, the silence seemed natural and comfortable between them. Alex smirked at the thought of feeling comfortable and safe in a room alone with Yassen, he never thought he'd see the day where he'd think spending time with Yassen would be  _relaxing_.

He watched as the assassin took the bottle and walked back to his seat, his closed his eyes again and Alex saw the bags under his eyes that he had not realised before. He questioned himself whether or not to let the assassin have a nap but decided that it would be better for the man to have a full out sleep later than it quick nap now.

"So, I've come to ask you questions and all we've been doing is talking about me."

"It's only fair that we both get to ask questions."

The man's eyes were still closed yet his voice was clear and not sleepy at all.

"Well then it is my turn to ask questions."

Alex waited for the man to open his eyes before asking, "Why are you not dead?"

::::

Yassen stared at the teen before him and wondered when he had become so attached to him. He looked into the globes of brown that made the boy look so old and tortured. He had felt his heart miss a beat as he had watched the youngest Rider smile at him. He wondered why it was the young man in front of him that made him feel unsure of himself.

When the boy, no he was a man now, had first started following him, he had speculated on what to do. When he had pointed the gun at Alex's back and silently threatened him with breaking his spine, Yassen had not expected himself to feel joyful as he heard the sarcastic boy's answers to his questions.

He reminded himself again that he was a man now, not a boy. Little Alex was gone and in his place was a confident and, dare he say it, handsome man. He could feel how the man had been relaxed when they had walked to the hotel, his arm wrapped around Alex's waist. He almost wanted to ask the man if men held him around the waist often, for him to be so comfortable with an intimate gesture between two men.

There were a thousand questions he wanted to ask the Alex Rider in front of him but first he had to tell the man how he ended up alive when it was clear he had died.

::::

Alex waited patiently as he watched Yassen collect his thoughts and think of a reply. He knew that whatever happened to the man afterwards would not have been pleasant. He could guess that MI6 would have detained Yassen, healed him up and maybe tortured him. However he has no idea how the man survived the bullet in the first place, he was sure the man had been dead and now he was sitting in front of him like he never died in the first place.

"Alex my story is a long one and I am tired, I shall shorten it for you and if you have questions then you may ask me at the end."

Ice blue eyes locked on his own brown eyes and questioned Alex whether or not this was okay. He gave a nod back and watched the man straighten in his seat.

"The bullet that hit me did kill me, but only for a second or two. Someone was able to restart my heart when we touched ground and I believe that I flat lined a couple of times on the way to the hospital but I always lived. I was in surgery for a long time, I don't know exactly how long. MI6 gave the hospital permission to treat me and they took me away as soon as I got out of surgery. I knew that being captured by MI6 would only lead to further pain, the British SIS is not above torture to get the information they want."

It unnerved Alex that Yassen could talk of such things in an emotionless voice that rivalled his own. He knew that the man was probably uncomfortable thinking of such times and he asked himself why he had asked for the man to explain. Alex did not know why but he did not like the thought of Yassen in pain and hated the fact that Yassen was probably in pain right now telling him about what happened because he had asked.

"I was lucky that Tulip Jones, the current head of MI6, was merciful and wanted me to recover from my surgery before damaging me more. She gave me a week of recovery, it was not long but I was able to escape in that week. How I escaped I would rather you didn't know."

The assassin cleared his throat and then opened his eyes. Alex had forgotten that Yassen had his eyes closed until he opened them to reveal ice blue globes looking directly at him.

"After that I went into hiding to recover for about six months. I reconnected with most of my contacts and found people who were willing to employ me without handing me to SCORPIA. Failure is not acceptable in SCORPIA and I knew that I was liked to be tortured to death if I returned. I was careful at selecting my jobs at the beginning; I needed to earn the trust of the underground organizations again before they gave me bigger jobs."

Alex interrupted with a question that he later realised he should have saved for the end, "Why did you not retire?"

Yassen smiled at him humourlessly and replied, "You cannot stop being a spy, I cannot stop being an assassin. I am a man who needs to do something; I cannot live with a common job like as an accountant and I cannot walk around freely for fear of being sighted as an assassin."

"Yes but if you are an assassin then they will still sight you as an assassin."

This time the grin was more real and a bit cheeky as Yassen said, "Yes and I have the means to kill them off before they say a word to anyone."

Alex refused to look away from the assassin's piercing gaze. He was not an old hand at the spy game but he could see that Yassen was testing him, trying to see just how much had changed since he last saw Alex. He needed the assassin to know that he was no longer a young boy who survived the spy game on borrowed luck; he needed the man to see that this game they were playing had officially become his game too.

"Well Yassen, didn't your teacher ever tell you that violence is not the answer?"

It was Alex who grinned in amusement at his own joke and Yassen simply looked at him as if he had gone a bit mad.

"Alex, you said you had some questions to ask and some things to tell me that I should know. Now is a good time to tell me what these 'things' are."

Alex gulped and wondered if the assassin would kill him after he revealed what he had learnt just after the man's death. He took another drink from his bottle and slowly met the assassin's eyes.

It was time Alex Rider told Yassen Gregorovich about John Rider's betrayal.

::::

"After I had thought you had died, I listened to your advice and went and looked for SCORPIA. They told me that my dad had been an assassin that had worked for them. I believed them and trained with them, learning all the things I needed to be a successful assassin."

Alex got a faraway look on his face as he recalled his time with SCORPIA; he remembered how he had been treated as an adult by them and how they seemed to respect him for his skills more than MI6 ever did. Alex did not miss his time with SCORPIA but he had always hated how MI6 treated him like a child even though they sent him to do missions that even adults can't successfully complete.

"They sent me on a mission not long before I started training, Rothman sent me to kill Mrs Jones. She showed me a tape of how my dad had died, how Jones had given the command for someone to shoot him. I believed her and went to do the job, but I failed."

"Everyone makes a mistake at some time or rather Alex; it is nothing to be ashamed of."

He gave the assassin a small smile because although it was nice of the man to tell him that, he knew that in the world they lived in, one mistake could mean his life gone.

"It is not the mistake that I am upset about, it was the truth I found out afterwards. Blunt and Jones told me how my dad had been a double agent for MI6. They told me of the truth about his death, MI6 didn't kill him, they faked his death. Dad had wanted to quit and he organised a fake killing so that he could start anew with me and mum. We were meant to fly to France when I got an ear infection and had to stay back. Mum and dad were going to go first and I was to go later but their plane got blown up by my godfather, Ash."

At the mention of Ash, Alex thought of his Snakehead mission. He remembered how Ash had told him that Yassen had stabbed him in Malta and said absent-mindedly, "I think you stabbed him in the stomach once in Malta."

"Malta," Yassen muttered, "was one of my largest failures."

"Because Ash got away?"

Yassen looked surprised at this and replied with, "No, because your father had been captured and I had not been able to help him."

Alex opened his mouth to reply but didn't know what to say, so he closed it again and looked at the assassin in front of him. He cocked his head to the side and studied the Russian, he tried to imagine the assassin as a young boy but he could not do it. It was impossible for him to imagine Yassen as anything other than what he was, a cold blooded killer.

 _God,_  he was in a hotel with a cold blooded killer and he had willingly told the assassin something that just might make him kill Alex. Alex decided that he probably needed his brain to be checked, he was sure something was wrong in that skull of his.

But then he looked at the assassin, really looked at him. He seemed to be taking the news of John's betrayal quite well; he wasn't reaching for his gun or striding towards Alex with a knife. Hell, he didn't even look like he wanted to punch Alex.

Perhaps the assassin had missed the part about John being a traitor to SCORPIA, he did look really tired after all.

"Dad was killed by Ash but it had been Rothman who had given the order for his plane to be blown up. Rothman had loved my dad but she hated that he had not only betrayed SCORPIA, but he had betrayed her too."

Alex watched for Yassen's reactions to all this, he tried to understand what the assassin was feeling right now. It couldn't be easy; finding out that the one man you had looked up to had been lying to you the whole time you had known him.

Yassen was staring at the ground and when he finally looked up at Alex; his eyes were watery although he did not let the tears escape. His voice was coarse as he said something at last.

"I knew that John was MI6."

Alex gaped at Yassen and new questions formed in his mind,  _'If you knew then why send me to SCORPIA? Why did you tell me that SCORPIA was my destiny when you knew all along that dad was MI6? Did you want me to die?'_

The assassin didn't wait for Alex to voice his questions, he simply continued on.

"At first I had no idea that John was anything but SCORPIA, but the more missions I went on with him, the better I knew him. John had a sense of moral, he killed for money but he never tortured people. He didn't kill children and he always made the kills quick. The first time I suspected something was wrong, was on a mission in China."

He got a faraway look in his eyes and Alex knew that he was remembering the mission even though it must have been years ago. He knew that some things you just didn't forget.

"We had a hotel, one that had two bedrooms. It had been raining that day and I had gone out to buy food to make dinner. We had just finished our mission which had been tough and I thought that a home-cooked meal to celebrate would be a good idea. When I got back, John was on the phone. I don't think he knew I had come back, the rain had been pounding on the windows and I had already learnt to be silent with my actions at that time."

He paused and focused his gaze on Alex. Alex didn't know what he was looking for in him but he gave Yassen a small, tentative smile, encouraging him to carry on.

"I was curious as to who John was talking to as we had already called in to report on our mission. I was a curious boy and so I leaned against the door and listened in on John's conversation. At first I didn't get who he was talking to, why he was describing our most recent missions. Then he mentioned the word MI6 and it solved all the questions I had about his conversation. I remember standing up, feeling wobbly, like I was drunk. I had sat for a while on my bed in my room before walking out and starting to cook dinner, I don't remember exactly what happened after. I didn't tell John and we simply had dinner, making conversation about things that are unclear to me now."

Yassen's gaze returned to the ground and Alex felt like he should do something. He didn't know what to do but for some reason he found himself walking towards Yassen. When he reached the assassin, he squeezed his shoulder and sat on a chair beside the one Yassen was sitting on. He turned to face the assassin and it felt a little awkward since the chairs were next to each other instead of facing each other.

It was the assassin who twitched his lips at him this time, an expression of thanks for his silent encouragement.

"After that, I listened to John's conversations at every chance I got. I was in denial at first, but slowly everything started to make sense and I couldn't ignore the fact that John was a spy anymore. I never told him that I knew what he was, that I knew he was a traitor to SCORPIA. My love for John had outweighed my love for SCORPIA by millions and it was an easy decision to keep my mouth shut about what I knew."

He rested his elbow on the armrests and put his head in his hand. Alex felt sorry for Yassen as he listened to him recount his past. When Yassen spoke again, his voice was quiet almost too quiet for Alex to hear what he said.

"When Albert Bridge happened, I thought MI6 had double crossed him. I was so angry that MI6 had killed John, their agent who risked his life for them, and I didn't think. I was young and stupid; I didn't stop and think about what happened, I never even questioned why MI6 would just decide to kill him like that. I should have thought that it was a trick, but I was so angry at the time, I didn't think."

Alex wasn't sure but he thought that maybe Yassen was crying behind his hands, he wanted to comfort the assassin but he didn't know how. He may be a successful spy with many talents, but no one ever taught him how to comfort an assassin.

The idea of Yassen crying is a little absurd but Alex knew that although Yassen was an assassin, he was still a man. A man that could cry and laugh like any other, a man that could feel pain just like any being. If it were Sabina that was sad, he'd give her a hug. Somehow he didn't think the assassin would enjoy the hug like she did.

"I didn't think," His voice cracked a little and Alex watched his back heave, "and now I've messed everything up."

Screw this, Alex stood and promptly pulled Yassen out of his seat and gave him a nice, big hug. He felt the assassin stiffen and for a second he thought that the man might just kill him for touching him without permission. Then he felt the man slowly relax and Alex gave a sigh of relief. No spilling his blood for now.

"You couldn't have known, MI6 is great at covering things up and you weren't the only one fooled."

Alex didn't know if his words were comforting or simply making things worse but he threw caution out the window when he decided to hug the man so he figured he might as well be brave and try consulting the assassin.

 _I'd make a terrible psychiatrist._

The body in his arms shook and a quite laugh emerged from the assassin's lips.

"I'm glad you realise that."

He hadn't known he'd spoken out loud but he was glad, he had made Yassen laugh and he doubt that Yassen laughed often or easily. His arms were still around the assassin and he didn't know if he should release the man or keep on holding him. The position was a bit awkward and he wished that he'd thought about how to finish the hug before he'd given it.

It was Yassen who pulled back first but their eyes met before they could fully pull apart and they froze, staring into each other's eyes. Alex felt even more awkward and remembered a scene like this in one of Sabina's favourite films. He really needed to think before he gave out hugs in the future.

His eyes flickered to Yassen's lips as he remembered the passionate kissing scene that had occurred after the awkward eye staring scene.

He watched the lips get closer and thought of how he had seen those lips mutter about his destiny on Air Force One, he had a second to think, ' _They look exactly the same as the last time I saw them, does this mean that he's going to die in my arms again?'_ before their lips touched and they pulled each other close once again.

The kiss was gentle and sweet, something Alex hadn't expected, well the kiss overall was something he hadn't expected. They didn't kiss for very long and it felt like they just started before Yassen pulled away again.

His eyes locked on ice blue eyes and he silently questioned the man on what he wanted. Alex wasn't sure what he wanted but a question popped into his mind and he voiced it without thinking of how inappropriate it was at a time like this.

"If you wouldn't kill me because of my relation to John then why kill Ian? He was my father's brother, they're closer in blood than me and Dad."

He froze just as he finished and realised that he really, really needed to get that brain of his checked out. He was absolutely sure something was wrong with it.

He was surprised that the man in his arms hadn't frozen or pulled away, if Yassen had just asked him a question like that after kissing him he'd be… well he didn't know how he'd react. However the laugh he received from Yassen was definitely not what he'd expected, the man's laugh shook his frame and Alex looked at the man with confusion written all over his face.

"Alex, if you were thinking about Ian while we were kissing then I was doing something wrong or you need to seek professional help."

The man grinned at him and he couldn't help smiling back, he liked this new Yassen and he felt honoured that the man trusted him enough to show him what he felt. Alex had never thought that he'd love an assassin no matter what, but it seemed that he was wrong. He still didn't know if he loved the man like a lover or a friend but he knew that Yassen was one of the last people left in this world that he cared about.

He did not expect Yassen to actually answer his question but he's learnt that he shouldn't try to predict what the assassin would or would not do.

"I had killed Ian because I thought that he had betrayed John, I was angry at him for working for MI6 when it was clear that they were the ones to kill John. It was my job and I thought that although John would not be happy I killed his brother, I had a good reason to do it. I never wanted to kill you because you never knew about what happened to your father, I thought that I was helping you by sending you to SCORPIA, it seems that I was wrong once again."

Alex heard the guilt in Yassen's words and he felt pained that he couldn't do anything to help the assassin. He gave the man another kiss and then they both parted with a silent mutual agreement: there was to be no sex tonight.

Alex still wasn't sure what he wanted even after all the kissing they'd done, he was definitely attracted to the man but he didn't know if he wanted to become an assassin's lover. He was glad that Yassen wasn't pushing the matter and they both walked towards the counter to grab a drink.

There were still millions of things they needed to talk about but Alex remembered how tired the man had been and so he locked up his questions for another day and suggested to the man for him to sleep.

"If I sleep, what will you do?"

Alex checked his watch and realised that if he headed to the Pleasures' house, they would still be awake.

"I've got to go check in with my family, I'll come wake you up at 2:30 so that you can do your job."

"You do not have to come back, I can set an alarm."

Alex looked the man in the eyes and said, "I want to."

Those three words contained so much more meaning and it was those three words that started their complicated relationship.

When he arrived back at the hotel at 2:27am on Christmas day, he woke the assassin up and gave him another kiss.

Then he grabbed his coat and left, not looking back. He knew he'll see the assassin again.

 _Epilogue_

After that first night, Alex and Yassen often met up to talk. Alex asked all the questions that he could think of and Yassen answered with patience, never getting annoyed at the amount of questions Alex had. Sometimes they'd meet up before one of their missions, sometimes after. It wasn't often for them to meet while both on a mission but they were professionals and acted like the enemies they were supposed to be if they did meet.

The first time they slept together was on Alex's 21st birthday. They had been meeting each other for over three years by then and Alex had finally decided what he wanted from Yassen. After three years of silent messages Yassen had understood exactly what he wanted when he started unbuttoning the man's shirt. Yassen had silently questioned him if he was sure and he simply said, "I want to."

Alex finished his degree in business when he was 23, three months after graduating; he signed a contract with the CIA, stating him as a full time agent. When Yassen found out, he was not very pleased, but before he could utter a single word Alex said, "I want to."

Yassen retired way before he did; the former assassin became an accountant for three weeks before he admitted defeat and bought Alex a brand new car. He had finally learnt to never bet with Alex Rider.

Yassen became an engineer after that and worked to fix cars, planes, trains, boats and everything that could need fixing. He had started his own business and in two years he became the best of the best. However Yassen was still Yassen and he only worked for people who could pay his price and he charged more than any other engineer so people did not often call him to fix their washing machine.

Alex retired from active spy work when he became thirty-five and instead became the new head of CIA covert operations department. Yassen was twenty-one years older than him and he had been fifty-eight when Alex, as the head of covert ops, asked him to become a flight teacher for the trainees.

Yassen had a passion for flying and he owned both a helicopter and a plane, he flied often and when Alex had asked, he only pretended to think about it before saying yes. However Yassen was not born to teach and few students liked him as a teacher. He made it almost impossible to pass his class and out of five of his trainees, only one or two would receive a pass from him. Although he wasn't the most cheerful teacher, the students he passed were always the ones that succeeded in missions and never froze at the sign of danger.

At the age of seventy Yassen was forced to retire and he absolutely did not sulk around their home for a month before Alex decided to retire with the assassin. Yassen had been against it from the very beginning when he heard about it and no matter how Alex said, "I want to." Yassen refused to let him do it.

Yassen never like Alex working for the CIA yet he could not deny that his partner loved his job, he would not be the one to cause Alex to retire at the age of forty-nine and he was very stubborn. Yassen won his first fight with Alex when he was seventy and he was proud, even if it did take thirty-one years for him do it.

Alex Rider and Yassen Gregorovich were not always perfect for each other but they managed to live together with minimal damage.

Well,  _almost_  minimal damage.


End file.
